Dawn Richard has implied she was “threatened” into joining Diddy’s Dirty Money instead of continuing with Danity Kane.
While appearing on a recent episode of the Cocoism podcast, Richard addressed how fans often frame her online, especially when it comes to the Dirty Money situation.
“People say, ‘Oh, you chose Dirty Money over Danity Kane,’ and it’s like, no, I was bought out of a contract, and I was told I couldn’t leave,” she said (around the 14:35 mark in the video below). “I was threatened, but I didn’t tell everybody that. I just did what I had to do to get out of it, because I didn’t feel like that was everybody’s business.”
“People gonna believe whatever the fuck they gonna believe anyway,” Richard added. “If I don’t go every day online screaming, then the narrative gets picked. They only believe whatever the one person says.”
In that same interview, Richard also opened up about how she felt being left out of Danity Kane’s Untold Chapter tour. “I wasn’t involved; I was iced out of this one,” she said. “That’s a choice [they made], but I’m not going to go back and forth, be messy, or call myself ‘the mother’ [of the group because I came up with the name]. I wish it could be all five of us.”
She went on to say she was “saddened by the reality” of the situation and admitted she doesn’t believe they’ll ever get close enough to reunite and make music together again.
The Untold Chapter Tour kicked off earlier this month featuring Aubrey O’Day, D. Woods, and Aundrea Fimbres.
Even though she isn’t part of the tour, Richard shared on social media earlier this month that she “will always be a yes to Danity Kane,” adding that “that chapter lives in [her] forever.”
